Happy Halloween

But. But. But.

But my favorite month ends in less than 4 hours. How could it go that quickly!? Couldn't March go that quickly. Couldn't driving through Connecticut go that quickly? Couldn't the rest of law school go that quickly?

I've been working on my paper and other studying all weekend. I went for two walk/jogs. I'm currently at Whole Foods for a quick stop before heading home to study more. It seems depressingly endless.

This will be a difficult next few weeks. I can't say I'm looking forward to it. Here's what's coming up:

Nov 2 - 25 page Ethics paper
Nov 6 - First part of the Bar Exam (Professional Ethics)
Nov 9 - Memo for Mining class due
Nov 11 - Trade paper (25? 30 pages?)
Nov 15 - Book review (15 pages)
Nov 16 - 5 page narrative paper
Petroleum Paper & Presentation
Mining Paper & Presentation
Trade Presentation

This is all on top of regular class and reading

Odds and ends

I think this song is pretty great. A perfect warm-up song. Starts slowly, builds, gets you wrapped in, and ends with you feeling pumped up and energized:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tafqnb5fsK8

I bought a new stink! (Stink is what my dad calls perfume.) It's called Eclat D'arpege. I don't know how to explain it, but it smells good.

I saw Woody Allen's movie last night - You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger. Not good. I usually really like his movies, so I was surprised. Not funny. Borderline bad acting. Predictable plot. Hard to get what the point was, except maybe that everything sucks, people cheat, lie, steal, and treat don't treat others nicely. I don't recommend it.

Sun & exercise

My survival tips/goals for this semester have been (1) see sunshine and (2) don't give up on exercise. I let this slip all through September and I was starting to feel really not myself. I realized I needed to get more sunshine. Literally, get outside when it's not dark out - for a walk, errands, lunch, anything. I brought my bike to school and started leaving mid-day to ride outside, shower at the gym, and then return to school.

I also realized (admitted to myself?) that if I don't exercise first thing in the morning, it's less likely that I will exercise. Funny how will power works and how long it lasts. But, once I admitted to myself that I should plan to workout in the morning, I've had much better success staying on the exercise band-wagon. So strange that I am perfectly happy to get up early and just head to the gym on autopilot, waking up sometime in the middle of my workout, but that if I leave it to the end of they day, I can't pull myself together. Also, it seems like I am equally tired at 5 p.m. whether I have exercised in the morning or not... so I might as well exercise!

Anyway, if you're looking to get your life back in balance, I recommend sun and exercise.

Happy Friday!

London + back again

Ahhh, London was so wonderful! I had never been there before and just adored it. Yes, yes, I know vacation and visiting with friends and all of this is makes it a different experience from actually living there. But it was a good experience! What didn't we do!?

I arrived Friday, picked up my friend's keys from the restaurant below his flat. After shower and "topping up" the Skype phone I borrowed from Diana, I walked around West London for the afternoon. My friend got off work and we went to a gastropub in Angel for dinner. Delicious food: notably, the "chips" (fries). Walked past a hip bar and decided to go in for a shi-shi drink. The bar was warm refuge, bustling, small, crowded, dark, looked nondescript from the outside. Good fun. Reminded me of a bigger/older Boston.

Saturday we headed to Portabello Market to browse the food, antiques, and people watch. From there, we hoped on the tube to get to Embanquement (spelling?) where we walked along the Thames, crossed bridges, heard a classical music afternoon concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, saw the Tate Modern and the Gauguin Exhibit going on right now. What next? We went toward Central London to see the sights, walk through Chinatown, Regents Park, Hyde Park, etc. We stopped when we got hungry as we were passing Iraqi food. YUM. After that we picked up ice cream on the way home.

Sunday we went to Brick Lane. So cool! Hipster market type. Young crowd, awesome stands of independent artists with graphic tees, jewelry, scarves, clothes, trinkets, cards, bags, food, etc. I loved the bustling crowd, diversity of look, style, language. From there we went to afternoon tea and hustled to a fringe theater show that was hilarious. I looooved it. Walked home, past this beautiful, empty street with all the embassies. Watched part of Woody Allen movie and crashed hard.

Monday morning I got to meet Diana's musician friends for breakfast at Le Pain Quotidien. Yay! So nice to meet them and talk about our little Diana. I caught a flight at about 4 p.m. and watched the sunset for about 8 hours as we raced the sun toward the West. I was exceedingly proud of myself for doing homework and not sleeping during the flight. Picked up my car, exhausted, drove back to Denver and got to bed at 11 p.m. Denver time/6 a.m. London time.

I am very lucky to have such good friends all around the world. Couldn't have asked for a more perfect weekend!

Since then, back to the ol' routine. Gym in the morning, work and meetings and class all day. I wrote and handed in a 3,000 word midterm yesterday (due at 7 p.m.). Glad that's over with! On to the next paper, er. um. I mean updating the neglected little bloggie. Sorry bloggie and kind readers!

Also of note, I have now gone running 2 days in a row! YAaaay! The first day I did:

walk 5 min
run 10 min
walk 5 min
run 10 min

Then yesterday I did:

walk 5 min
Run 10 min
walk 5 min
run 10 min
walk 5 min
run 17 min
walk 10 min

And when I say "run," let's be honest, I was barely jogging. But, hey, it's fall. It's beautiful and leaves are falling. I felt great and felt pretty lucky and happy about it all! Who cares about all that law school work waiting for me. :)

Across the pond

Quick jaunt to London for the weekend -- yay! Will report back next week with photos.

Musique

Some songs I've been listening to:

Jason DeRulo - In my Head
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyG1FG3H6rY
I dig the Michael Jackson-esque dancing of this video.

Shakira - Loca
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KewfYKJy8YU
Good dancing music!

Buika - Jodida pero Contenta
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Gm9wATAQLk
You'll have to look up what the title means yourself if you want to know (somehow it's okay for me to post swear words in Spanish, but not in English?). Don't know Buika? She's a Spanish Roma singer originally from Equatorial Guinea. Her Latin fusion funk music mixes traditional flamenco, coplas, soul and jazz. Her album Nina de Fuego was nominated for the 2008 Latin Grammy Award for Album of the Year. Basically, she's cool.

Rainy Sunday

Today it's drizzling here, which for Denver, is as rainy as it gets. I've been at the library for 5 hours, but I'm heading home to do work there. Not much else to report, except that I went for a nice walk last night. Denver's so quiet and there are a couple streets with fantastic, beautiful houses.

I listened to this RadioLab show the other day on "Falling." There was one story on it that was so sad! It's about a guy who has face agnosia (an inability to recognize faces) and how he and a girl fell in love, and then out of it. You can find it here. It's the second story, approximately minute 10 to minute 20. The part that really struck me as sad starts at about 19:35 to 21:00. Check it out if you have 10 minutes.

Drs Update

First off, the heel is getting better! I can hardly contain my excitement and have been planning my first run, my ease-back-into-running-plan, and how great it will feel to be back in running shape. Yeee-ay! Apparently, my calf/lower leg muscles were so tight it was straining the muscles in my foot (arch, toes, etc.). I have been doing my stretching and toe strength exercises and the heel pain is going away. That's right: pretty soon I'll be eating bananas and playing the piano with my toes. I also got fitted yesterday for orthotics. Expensive, but I think it's beyond worth it. I should get them in about a week and then I get to go running! :)

Today I got blood drawn. 3 men tried 5 times for an hour. 5 pokes, people! One of them said to me, "You have such tiny little lady veins!" I didn't say anything because, really, what are you supposed to say to that. After a period of awkward silence, he said, "That's a compliment." I mustered up a "thank you," ending the you with an up intonation. Also, I got really cold halfway through this hour-long blood drawing. Like, shivering uncontrollably. Then another guy said, "We'll have to make you go to the gym first next time" because apparently that makes it easier to find veins. I told him that I had come to the hospital directly from the gym! Sheesh. Of all parts of my body that could be thin. Anyway, they were all ashamed, embarrassed and apologetic. I staggered out of there clutching the hot packs they gave me and blasted the heat.

On the plus side, I guess I have low blood pressure.

the month we've been waiting for

October is my favorite month. It's not quite the same out here in Colorado where the highs are still upper 80s or even lower 90s, and the leaves are sort of a pale brown, tan color before they fall off the trees. I miss New England fall. We used to have such beautiful runs for cross country. I'm going to try to make the most of it out here. I went to Vail and western Colorado to see the yellow aspens change colors. I've been going for bike rides outside and walks at night. We're already 4 days in, so I'd better get going on making October great!

Last weekend:

went to symphony (heard Beethoven)
went to a "Progressive Potluck"
took naps
went for 2 bike rides
went for 3 walks